Workshops           

1. CommunARTy: Art therapy practices at a non-profit community art center
::Carolyn Lewis

What is your role? Art therapist? Art educator? Artist using art as therapy?
This workshop will examine the idea of negotiating identity roles in a non-profit community art center. Using Brickton Art Center’s Outreach Program as an example, we will discuss how to collaborate with other non-profit agencies to develop an art therapy program specifically for their clients, exhibiting client artwork in public spaces throughout the community, and the issues and challenges of maintaining these programs. This workshop will include a presentation of exhibited artwork created by artists in Brickton’s outreach programs.

Carolyn Lewis, MAAT, LPC is the Program and Outreach Coordinator at Brickton Art Center, a non-profit community art center in Park Ridge, Illinois. She provides art therapy services to children, adolescents, and adults in a variety of community settings. Carolyn received her Master’s degree in art therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She currently holds the position of Exhibitions Chair for the Illinois Art Therapy Association

2. I SEE You!
::Wendy Ritchey

An experiential workshop about the use of portraiture in art therapy presented by Wendy Ritchey. We will focus particular attention on the transition from artist to art therapist and what is LOST in that process as well as what is GAINED. We will practice using our skills as artists to engage clients and combat the perception of art as an infantilizing activity. This workshop will explore ways to use portraiture to strengthen a therapeutic alliance with clients. Portraiture holds the potential to celebrate an individual’s dignity and unique humanity in a very immediate and vital way. Portraiture can elevate a person’s sense of self and establish a genuine connection that circumvents verbiage and reaches out through a more direct route in the here and now. We will investigate means to use portraiture in a collaborative way to empower clients’ vision for recovery. We will also look at ethical issues related to drawing portraits of clients including confidentiality, ownership of the artwork, and how the experience impacts the client. We will look at potential dangers of using portraiture in art therapy as well.

Lasting 90 minutes, the initial 20 minutes will include a brief discussion, accompanied by pictures, of my own experiences with portraiture both as an artist and as an art therapist. This will be followed by 45 minutes of experiential portrait drawing with a partner. The workshop will conclude with a discussion focusing on the following questions.

-Does the artist’s skill elevate or intimidate?
-How does the experience of being a portrait subject impact the therapeutic relationship?
-Whose needs is the portrait fulfilling?
-Am I allowed to do this as an art therapist?

Wendy Ritchey, A.T.R., B.C., L.C.P.C. is a socially awkward person who uses art to compensate for this lack of social facility. Despite this failing and also because of it she respects and identifies with people who suffer from various mental disorders and has managed to parlay her oddities into a useful career as an art therapist.

In 1977 she earned a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree from the Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio and began teaching portrait and figure drawing classes through the community adult education program at a high school in Indiana. This failed to pay the bills so she also worked as a residential manager in a supervised apartment complex for adults with developmental disabilities. There she spent most of her time drawing portraits of the residents.

In 1987 she earned her Master of Arts in Art Therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and began work as an Art Therapist in various schools and hospitals throughout Chicago land. Among the highlights of her 20 year career include 8 years as the art therapist at the Allendale school for elementary and high school students with emotional disturbances in Lake Villa, Illinois and 4 years at St. Colletta’s school for students with developmental challenges. Eventually she landed at Loretto Hospital where she’s been working in the expressive Therapy Department with patients on the psychiatric unit since 2001. Portraiture continues to serve as a strong component in overcoming social awkwardness or, translated into professional terminology, creating therapeutic alliances with people.

3. A Culture of Silence: Creating a Vocabulary for Child Sexual Assault/Abuse
::Valerie Newman

This workshop will focus on the challenges children face when disclosing sexual assault/abuse. In this interactive workshop you will explore your own personal biases related to child sexual abuse/assault. Workshop participants will generate ideas about how to initiate a dialog with children around such a challenging topic. As art therapists we have a unique opportunity to expand a child’s vocabulary through the use of imagery and art. In a world that stifles discussion about child sexual abuse we hold a valuable tool for these children.

Valerie Newman, MAAT received a bachelor in fine art degree with an emphasis on sculpture from the University of Arizona, in Tucson. She graduated from the Master of Art in Art Therapy program, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in 2005.    She currently works at Safe Passage, a domestic violence shelter in DeKalb, IL.  As the first child sexual assault/abuse counselor at the agency, Val is working to establish the program both within the organization and the community.  In addition to her job at Safe Passage Val pursues her art work where she examines the social issues related to her work at Safe Passage through mixed media sculpture and 2D art.

4. Unlikely Prints
::Denise Colletti

Re-use of discarded materials is a practical approach often employed by art therapists with small budgets. Is it merely convenience that fuels our resourcefulness, or is the re-inventing an integral component of metaphor and insight? This workshop will facilitate direct experience with a recycling form of block printing, as well as diary work, as a means to examine how the shadows of life choices and experiences can become valuable guides to a more empowered future. Re-inventing the utility of objects may suggest the possibility of reconfiguring, rather than discarding, objectionable elements of the past. This artistic synthesis enables the transformation from shadow print to blueprint.

Denise Colletti, MA, ATR is a firm believer in the power of art to communicate, open doors, and bridge great distances emotionally, intellectually and geographically. Her own experience as an artist and collaborator inspire and fuel her art therapy work, constantly motivating dynamic approaches. During thirteen years of artistic journey alongside the mentally ill, and incarcerated at the Cook County Jail, Denise has consulted and volunteered with various populations including homeless, children with special needs, pulmonary support groups, those with spinal cord injuries, and community artists. Presenting nationally, facilitating workshops and educating are fundamental components of her participation in and responsibility to the field of art therapy.